John Henderson
TVWBB Fan
I've been lurking around here for what? Five years or more? I've come close to buying a WSM on a couple of occasions, but was never quite able to justify the expense. From lingering around here, I'd been encouraged to become a KCBS CBJ. But I still haven't BBQ'd anything. I had thought that perhaps I should just try barbecuing on my grill (22" Weber kettle) despite its inadequacies as a smoker. I was encouraged when I cooked our Thanksgiving turkey on the grill over indirect heat and threw some smoke wood on the fire, and came out with the best turkey I'd ever had. I wouldn't call it barbecuing since it wasn't low and slow. I did an experiment without food on another day to see if I could hold a low-200F temperature on the grill. I could with some effort.
I thought ribs would be a good start since they cook more quickly than butts or brisket, and wouldn't be hurt too badly if I decided to finish them off high. Also, I would need thermometers for the cooker and the meat. After hinting at it for months, my wife suggested I try ribs and asked me what I needed. Of course, I went to the VWB site and pulled the the Best Ribs in the Universe (BRITU) recipe and told her to pick up some spares. Only after I had started cooking, did I realize that BRITU called for Baby Backs. Oh well. That's why I called them Frankenribs. I also read Chris A's excellent article (with video) on preparing spare ribs and preparing a St. Louis cut.
This is the rub ready to go...
I used a blade coffee grinder to grind my peppercorns and then to mix the other ingredients. (Alton Brown trick - a blade grinder is actually no good for coffee, but great for spices.)
Here's the package of ribs from Wally World...
After trimming, bone side up...
Yeah...I nicked the "good" membrane.
...and meat side up...
Chris' instructions made this go almost effortlessly. My only problem was my trimming of the cartilaginous section. I cut it in two pieces. With the first cut, I said, "I can't be cutting off that much meat" and didn't cut enough off. I reviewed the article and came back to finish the cut properly.
Now, I should point out that a good friend from college I hadn't seen in 13 years was passing through town and wanted to meet for lunch, so I didn't get things in the "cooker" when I wanted. I rubbed the ribs, but didn't want them sitting out for three or four hours while we ran some errands and met my friend for lunch, so I rubbed them and put them in the fridge. I pulled them as soon as I got home, and they still got over an hour to come to room temperature before going on the grill.
Here, you see the nice mahogany color from the rub and some of the juices that were pulled out.
I started a heaping chimneyful of charcoal (which turned out to be too much), and placed my water pan in the center of the grill with the charcoal on either side.
I didn't let all of the charcoal get completely gray since I didn't need that much burning to maintain the temps I wanted. Even so, I spent the next hour with the vents closed getting the temps down to 250F or so. I didn't get the ribs on until 2PM. Don't think I'm going to make a 5PM dinner. (Yes...maybe next time I will try the Minion Method.)
Halfway through the cook, I closely examined what was going on. I had experienced this when doing the turkey at Thanksgiving and should have known better - when dividing the charcoals as I did an attempting to maintain a low temp, one side has the tendency to go out. So I moved all of the charcoal to one side as Jamie Purviance teaches for barbecuing on a grill in Weber's Way To Grill and moved the water pan to the other side. I think keeping all of the combustion in one tight spot worked much better.
Sorry that I didn't spend the time taking more photos.
7PM came and went, and there was very little sign of the meat pulling from the bone under any amount of force. Wife was looking very annoyed. I decided I was going to pull them at 7:45 regardless. (5:45 of cooking time) Neither my wife nor I like globs of sauce on our Q, so at 7:15, I brushed sauce on the ribs to form a nice glaze. At 7:45 PM, I pulled the rack and let them rest for a few minutes. The glaze looked good. I cut them up...
Now for the moment of truth. The texture wasn't far off! The first bite left a nice bitemark, and only stuck to the bone a little. Maybe a KCBS 8 on tenderness. It was close to finishing. Of course, appearance was a 9. Now, I've been telling people that I realized at my KCBS judge's class that I had never actually had a decent rib before in my life. If I hadn't gone to that class and judge that competition, these would have been the best I'd ever had. I wouldn't go so far as to say they'd beat the ones I had in class or judged, but they still beat the pants off anything I'd ever had at a restaurant. At least a 7 on taste.
I should mention that I also deviated in one other place from the recipe. It called for oak and cherry. I thought I had that and didn't check until I started cooking. Then, I realized that my "oak" was actually hickory. So I went with the hickory instead.
So I didn't use a proper cooker. And I deviated from the recipe in four or five places. But I still came out with what we thought were outstanding ribs.
Both my wife and I thought the glaze was plenty of sauce. We agreed on some adjustments to the rub for the next time. The BRITU was a good starting point to adjust to my own rub recipe.
Of course, that itch to get a WSM is getting strong again. Either way, I'm encouraged to try some other things now. I will probably try the ribs again and improve my technique and recipe, and then pork butt would probably be the next logical step.
Thanks to Chris Allingham, the VWB and all the other posters for the great info. I keep pointing other people here to learn to BBQ.
I thought ribs would be a good start since they cook more quickly than butts or brisket, and wouldn't be hurt too badly if I decided to finish them off high. Also, I would need thermometers for the cooker and the meat. After hinting at it for months, my wife suggested I try ribs and asked me what I needed. Of course, I went to the VWB site and pulled the the Best Ribs in the Universe (BRITU) recipe and told her to pick up some spares. Only after I had started cooking, did I realize that BRITU called for Baby Backs. Oh well. That's why I called them Frankenribs. I also read Chris A's excellent article (with video) on preparing spare ribs and preparing a St. Louis cut.
This is the rub ready to go...
I used a blade coffee grinder to grind my peppercorns and then to mix the other ingredients. (Alton Brown trick - a blade grinder is actually no good for coffee, but great for spices.)
Here's the package of ribs from Wally World...
After trimming, bone side up...
Yeah...I nicked the "good" membrane.
...and meat side up...
Chris' instructions made this go almost effortlessly. My only problem was my trimming of the cartilaginous section. I cut it in two pieces. With the first cut, I said, "I can't be cutting off that much meat" and didn't cut enough off. I reviewed the article and came back to finish the cut properly.
Now, I should point out that a good friend from college I hadn't seen in 13 years was passing through town and wanted to meet for lunch, so I didn't get things in the "cooker" when I wanted. I rubbed the ribs, but didn't want them sitting out for three or four hours while we ran some errands and met my friend for lunch, so I rubbed them and put them in the fridge. I pulled them as soon as I got home, and they still got over an hour to come to room temperature before going on the grill.
Here, you see the nice mahogany color from the rub and some of the juices that were pulled out.
I started a heaping chimneyful of charcoal (which turned out to be too much), and placed my water pan in the center of the grill with the charcoal on either side.
I didn't let all of the charcoal get completely gray since I didn't need that much burning to maintain the temps I wanted. Even so, I spent the next hour with the vents closed getting the temps down to 250F or so. I didn't get the ribs on until 2PM. Don't think I'm going to make a 5PM dinner. (Yes...maybe next time I will try the Minion Method.)
Halfway through the cook, I closely examined what was going on. I had experienced this when doing the turkey at Thanksgiving and should have known better - when dividing the charcoals as I did an attempting to maintain a low temp, one side has the tendency to go out. So I moved all of the charcoal to one side as Jamie Purviance teaches for barbecuing on a grill in Weber's Way To Grill and moved the water pan to the other side. I think keeping all of the combustion in one tight spot worked much better.
Sorry that I didn't spend the time taking more photos.
7PM came and went, and there was very little sign of the meat pulling from the bone under any amount of force. Wife was looking very annoyed. I decided I was going to pull them at 7:45 regardless. (5:45 of cooking time) Neither my wife nor I like globs of sauce on our Q, so at 7:15, I brushed sauce on the ribs to form a nice glaze. At 7:45 PM, I pulled the rack and let them rest for a few minutes. The glaze looked good. I cut them up...
Now for the moment of truth. The texture wasn't far off! The first bite left a nice bitemark, and only stuck to the bone a little. Maybe a KCBS 8 on tenderness. It was close to finishing. Of course, appearance was a 9. Now, I've been telling people that I realized at my KCBS judge's class that I had never actually had a decent rib before in my life. If I hadn't gone to that class and judge that competition, these would have been the best I'd ever had. I wouldn't go so far as to say they'd beat the ones I had in class or judged, but they still beat the pants off anything I'd ever had at a restaurant. At least a 7 on taste.
I should mention that I also deviated in one other place from the recipe. It called for oak and cherry. I thought I had that and didn't check until I started cooking. Then, I realized that my "oak" was actually hickory. So I went with the hickory instead.
So I didn't use a proper cooker. And I deviated from the recipe in four or five places. But I still came out with what we thought were outstanding ribs.
Both my wife and I thought the glaze was plenty of sauce. We agreed on some adjustments to the rub for the next time. The BRITU was a good starting point to adjust to my own rub recipe.
Of course, that itch to get a WSM is getting strong again. Either way, I'm encouraged to try some other things now. I will probably try the ribs again and improve my technique and recipe, and then pork butt would probably be the next logical step.
Thanks to Chris Allingham, the VWB and all the other posters for the great info. I keep pointing other people here to learn to BBQ.
